Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysToronto Int'l Film FestivalHispanic Heritage MonthIMDb Stars to WatchSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

Blood of the Vampire

  • 1958
  • Approved
  • 1h 27m
IMDb RATING
5.5/10
1.6K
YOUR RATING
Blood of the Vampire (1958)
In 1870s Transylvania, scientist Dr. Callistratus is put to death by villagers who wrongly believe he's a vampire. However, his horribly disfigured henchman, Carl is on hand to orchestrate a life-saving heart transplant.
Play trailer2:03
1 Video
88 Photos
HorrorSci-Fi

In 1870s Transylvania, scientist Dr. Callistratus is put to death by villagers who wrongly believe he's a vampire. However, his horribly disfigured henchman, Carl is on hand to orchestrate a... Read allIn 1870s Transylvania, scientist Dr. Callistratus is put to death by villagers who wrongly believe he's a vampire. However, his horribly disfigured henchman, Carl is on hand to orchestrate a life-saving heart transplant.In 1870s Transylvania, scientist Dr. Callistratus is put to death by villagers who wrongly believe he's a vampire. However, his horribly disfigured henchman, Carl is on hand to orchestrate a life-saving heart transplant.

  • Director
    • Henry Cass
  • Writer
    • Jimmy Sangster
  • Stars
    • Donald Wolfit
    • Vincent Ball
    • Barbara Shelley
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.5/10
    1.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Henry Cass
    • Writer
      • Jimmy Sangster
    • Stars
      • Donald Wolfit
      • Vincent Ball
      • Barbara Shelley
    • 39User reviews
    • 43Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:03
    Trailer

    Photos88

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 81
    View Poster

    Top cast40

    Edit
    Donald Wolfit
    Donald Wolfit
    • Callistratus
    Vincent Ball
    Vincent Ball
    • John Pierre
    Barbara Shelley
    Barbara Shelley
    • Madeleine
    Victor Maddern
    Victor Maddern
    • Carl
    William Devlin
    • Kurt
    Andrew Faulds
    Andrew Faulds
    • Wetzler
    John Le Mesurier
    John Le Mesurier
    • Judge
    Bryan Coleman
    • Auron
    • (as Bryan Coleman/Brian Coleman)
    Cameron Hall
    • Drunken Doctor
    George Murcell
    George Murcell
    • First Guard
    Julian Strange
    • Second Guard
    Bruce Wightman
    Bruce Wightman
    • Third Guard
    • (as Bruce Whiteman)
    Barbara Burke
    • Housekeeper
    Bernard Bresslaw
    Bernard Bresslaw
    • Tall Sneak Thief
    Hal Osmond
    Hal Osmond
    • Small Sneak Thief
    Henri Vidon
    • Professor Meinster
    • (as Henry Vidon)
    John Stuart
    John Stuart
    • Uncle
    Colin Tapley
    Colin Tapley
    • Commissioner of Prisons
    • Director
      • Henry Cass
    • Writer
      • Jimmy Sangster
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews39

    5.51.6K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    8davehutchens-2

    Terrific Gothic thriller in grand Hammer style!

    I couldn't agree more with the positive comments on this much-overlooked Hammer-styled gem. The 2006 Dark Sky DVD double-feature (with "The Hellfire Club") is a *must-have* for any fan of the early Hammer films. A delightful drive-in double-feature program design, including concessions ads, trailers and even an intermission, really adds to the enjoyment of the these two classic films. The transfer on both is quite respectable, certainly much superior to anything previously available, and is in anamorphic widescreen. Kudos to Dark Sky for their outstanding work on this and many other rare genre classics!
    5vampusmoon

    Good Gothic horror, but doesn't contain the punch of Hammer Horror!

    Well, fans of Gothic style 50s horror will love this classic movie. For me, I was expecting a little more 'vampire' in the story, like a gorgeous vampiress dressed in a gown with fangs galore to bite the neck of those she seduces - but sadly no.

    The movie starts with the Count being staked through the heart and buried, before his servant 'Karl' (who plays a good Igor like character) takes his masters body to a mental asylum to revive him.

    After a Doctor is wrongly accused in court of killing a patient through blood transfusing, he is sent to the asylum for his life-long punishment, only to become a servant to the Count, who wants to use his expertise in surgical practise on other inmates, mainly their blood.

    This movie has the imagery of Hammer Horror, given by it's writer Jimmy Sangster, but sadly lacks the punch of a good dramatic Vampire story.

    As classic Gothic horrors go, it's worth a look.
    7moonspinner55

    Illogical and mistitled, but sheer fun...the one gem out of a thousand bad mad-scientist offerings

    A lunatic doctor in 1874 Transylvania, thought to be a vampire and killed with a wooden stake through his heart, is given a new ticker and resurrected from the dead; after changing his identity, he is put in charge of a remote prison for the criminally insane, but finds he needs medical help after his antagonistic blood cells are at odds with each other. Enter Vincent Ball (who amusingly resembles Edward Norton!) as a young doctor railroaded into prison via tampered evidence, and Barbara Shelley as Ball's sweetheart who believes her fiancé is innocent. Amazing, unusual screenplay from the talented Jimmy Sangster and solid performances bolster this horror-movie-which-really-isn't. A prologue complete with vampire-hunters and bright red blood prepares us for the standard bloodsucker set-up, yet Sangster is more interested in the wronged victim than the so-called vampire, and the action inside the heavily-guarded jail is surprisingly suspenseful. Some of the violence is a bit timid or rushed through, such as when a sadistic guard lands on his own bayonet blade (either director Henry Cass or his editor skitter passed the gruesome incidents), and there are a few plot-holes which the writer leaves gaping. Otherwise, an efficient and enjoyable British-made thriller filmed in muted, gloomy Eastmancolor; not the 'shocker' advertised, but actually so much more. *** from ****
    tedg

    The Evil Eye

    We each have the experiences that brought us to the way we dream, and the forms we use in wrangling the world. My cinematic maturity is pretty traceable because the films and the watching were so self-ware.

    Going back before well-formed notions of self, this was one film experience that changed me. Or rather I should say that the first two minutes changed me. It was my first movie alone, and my first non-cartoon movie. Sent on a mission to get bread, this ten year old sneaked into a matinée with the 15 cents left over. Sitting virtually alone I knew that what I was doing would be costly, and that I would be crossing a boundary with my life never fully retrieved.

    This movie starts with some text that tells us about the curse of the vampire being the greatest evil ever visited on the earth and that we are entering Transylvania during what I assumed was its riskiest, spookiest time. The only way to kill a vampire, we are told, is by a stake through the heart. We are in an unkempt graveyard, Leni Riefenstahl's mountains in the background. If a church bell tolls it doesn't matter because I heard it. Tones are muted, the distance is far. We know it is the deepest part of night.

    Townsfolk carry a wrapped corpse on a stretcher, careful about their delicate business in managing the evil undead. They tip the corpse into the shallow grave, the only real space, and the covering comes off the body's face. We see not the artificial snarling teeth that we expect, but a regular bank president sort of guy.

    The camera now looks up from the grave at two hired executioners. One has a stake five feet long, the other a wooden mallet with a head as big as his, something I suppose actually existed. But it is huge and the wide lens makes it very much larger as we hear the crunch of the stake through flesh and see and hear the pounding just as if it were our heart. The camera then shows the stake, the palette effectively shifting from black and white to color.

    A quick title and then we see a hunchback skulking behind a rock. His right eye (the wrong color) drooping two inches too low. Even a ten year old cinematic virgin could see at once that the action we have witnessed we have seen through his eye and that of the corpse. I was out of that air conditioned theater like my life depended on it. The bread did not survive.

    Now, after more than 50 years I can sit through the entire film. The first sequence is still masterful I think. But the rest of the thing must have been created by another team. Boring. It has dogs, which together with the opening must have been all Sangster had in mind when he started.

    Funny how you build a life.

    Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
    7dbborroughs

    A game attempt at aping the Hammer style has produced a film thats decent but unfairly forgotten

    The one enduring image from this film that has haunted me across the years is the weird hunchback assistant to the villain. Its an image that was splashed across horror magazines of my childhood. There was something about the twisted fellow with an eye that drooped to his cheek that made you want to see the movie. I never saw the film as a kid and it wasn't until tonight, well into my adulthood, that I managed to see the film. I can't say I was disappointed.

    The plot concerns Dr John Pierre who is wrongly thrown in jail. He is redirected to the asylum/prison run by Dr Callistratus so that John Pierre can help Callistratus with his experiments concerning blood. As those outside the prison attempt to free him through legal means Pierre is forced to deal with the strange goings on in the prison, including fending off the sadistic Carl, the hunchbacked assistant of Callistratus.

    Gothic, and grandly over the top in the way that most of the Hammer films weren't this is a cheesy but fun attempt at copying the Hammer Studios formula. It looks and feels very much like Hammer in it styling and plotting (Then again Jimmy Sangster of Hammer wrote the script) .Shot in color, the print I saw was well worn and a bit faded. I wonder how this would have looked at the time of its original release. It must have looked great. I loved the sets which were done in such a way as to give the illusion of space, unfortunately it turned every location into spaces the size of football stadiums (though in several sequences things were much too cramped).

    The whole thing reminded me of the sort of thing you used to run across at 2am on late night TV with too many commercials. Actually as much as I liked the film I do think it is a bit plodding and probably could have used either trimming or a commercial break or two.

    Strangely this film is very difficult to see. I'm at a loss as to why this film has fallen through the cracks over the last 40 odd years. Its not a bad movie, though it is a tad creaky and of a style they haven't done since Hammer stopped making movies. Perhaps its simply a matter of falling between the cracks in finding a distributor (it was not done by a "major producer"), or more likely the fact that there is no vampire with wings and fangs as promised in the title. What ever the real reason its a shame because this film is worth a look.

    If you like Hammer style horror or good but rarely seen films, search this one out and give it a try. Its certainly worth a bag of popcorn on a Saturday night watch movies.

    More like this

    The Crawling Eye
    5.2
    The Crawling Eye
    The Man Who Could Cheat Death
    6.3
    The Man Who Could Cheat Death
    The Haunted Strangler
    6.2
    The Haunted Strangler
    Danger on My Side
    5.1
    Danger on My Side
    A Piece of Cake
    5.1
    A Piece of Cake
    The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll
    6.3
    The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll
    Blood of Dracula
    4.6
    Blood of Dracula
    Curse of the Undead
    6.0
    Curse of the Undead
    Cat Girl
    5.4
    Cat Girl
    It! The Terror from Beyond Space
    6.0
    It! The Terror from Beyond Space
    Strange Affection
    6.5
    Strange Affection
    The Revenge of Frankenstein
    6.7
    The Revenge of Frankenstein

    Related interests

    Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
    Horror
    James Earl Jones and David Prowse in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
    Sci-Fi

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Victor Maddern got a headache from the extensive makeup he had to wear as the deformed hunchback Carl.
    • Goofs
      Kurt Urach's date of death is given as 1881 in the paper, but 1892 on his tombstone.
    • Quotes

      Callistratus: Since you're so interested in my work, there s no reason why you should not assist me. My experiments so far have been confined to male blood groups. I think it's time to extend my activity.

    • Crazy credits
      Opening credits prologue: Transylvania 1874

      The most loathsome scourge ever to afflict this earth was that of the Vampire.

      Nourishing itself on warm living blood, the only known method of ending a vampire's reign of terror was to drive a wooden stake through his heart.
    • Alternate versions
      There is additional footage of Karl tormenting some chained female victims and also more of his death and some bloody lab shots in a version released on VHS in France in the 80s.
    • Connections
      Featured in 100 Years of Horror: Scream Queens (1996)

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ13

    • How long is Blood of the Vampire?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 1958 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Der Dämon mit den blutigen Händen
    • Filming locations
      • Alliance Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK(studio: made at Alliance Film Studios Twickenham)
    • Production company
      • Tempean Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 27m(87 min)
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.